Sunday, May 13, 2007

When I called New York Times science writer Natalie Angier
to discuss her new book, "The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful
Basics of Science," I started by asking why, in the new work, is there
little of the impatience with religion she has expressed in some of her essays?
In "Confessions of a Lonely Atheist," for example, she complained
that for nonbelievers like herself America's "current climate of
religiosity can be stifling." In "My God Problem" she challenged
scientists who felt similarly to step up: "Why is it," she demanded,
"that most scientists avoid criticizing religion even as they decry the
supernatural mind-set?"